Blogging in a flooded market

Posted July 9th, 2009 by jamon

I watched the last 15 minutes of your webinar this morning (I plan on watching the archives once it's up) and had a question. Maybe it was answered in the first part of your webinar; if so, sorry about the duplication.

I am a web developer that mostly focuses on small businesses in my local area. I like to market myself on communication, reliability, and turnaround time. I feel I have a competitive advantage over others who offer the same services as mine in my local area, in that I am faster, have lower prices, am better at communicating, and am more reliable.

However, it's not an especially unique business in the sense that there are plenty of guys who can build you a website. For me to start blogging about HTML, CSS, graphic design, PHP, MySQL...it seems superfluous. What can I add to the conversation that a better programmer or graphic designer or SEO professional hasn't already covered? That may seem a little negative but I really wouldn't want to waste my time working on a blog that doesn't necessarily add useful content. My strengths don't lie in being the best programmer, designer, or SEO guy around (although I always try to improve in those areas) -- they lie more in the customer service and being excited about my clients' businesses rather than pumping out websites.

My thought is that if I did a blog I would need to focus on things that excite me. Being an entrepeneur, building a business from scratch with no money and without debt, those sort of things. Marketing your business cheaply yet effectively. I can see how that would attract small business owners to my site.

What do you think? Am I on the right track?

Thanks,

Jamon

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Your rating: None Average: 4.7 (3 votes)

If a businessman's

kjl 35 weeks 6 hours 35 min 32 sec ago

If a businessman's competitors get an edge on him by lying, then he will justify lying by saying he has to do it to keep up with the competition.

stock market education

What is blogging in a

lkj 35 weeks 1 day 6 hours 54 min ago

What is blogging in a flooded market?give more details regarding this.

flooring

I do the same work

Quentin Brown 1 year 2 weeks 4 days 4 hours ago

I see myself much more as a web marketer rather than a web designer so the things I write on my blog for my business is allabout marketing and positioning.

Have a look at http://webmarketingforprofit.com.au to see what I write about and hope it gives you some idea.

Quentin

Jamon

RickBurnes 1 year 2 weeks 4 days 21 hours ago

Thanks for the post. It's a really interesting question, and I agree w/ what everybody else has already posted.

One additional thought: Since you focus on small, local businesses, I think that as you build your blog you should focus on building online relationships with local online leaders. Is there a blog at your local newspaper? You should build a reputation on that site, particularlly if they allow links back to your site. Is there a popular local placeblog in your community? Maybe it makes some sense to do a few guest posts on that blog -- not about your business, but about issues that interest you and that are interesting to the local businesses that you serve. The more you can build relationships and trust with the online leaders in your community, the more traffic you'll get on your site, and the more people you'll be able to convert to leads and sales.

Hope this helps.

Rick

Thanks

jamon 1 year 2 weeks 4 days 21 hours ago

Thanks for the replies! I'll definitely give it some thought. I would need to be sure that I could keep up with the blogging in order to not appear stale.

I am definitely passionate about small businesses in general, so I would need to make that my focus.

Give to get

Inbound-guru.com 1 year 2 weeks 5 days 16 min ago

Providing accurate useful information that informs in a non self promoting manor gains credibility with influence authorities and decision makers. It may take a little longer to build the buzz but once the momentum gets rolling it has exponential effects. Of course passion, demonstrated commitment and unbiased commentary are fundamentals followed up by strategic timing and the use of Twitter, Facebook and other social media forms to amplify the word of mouth effect will maximize ROI in time and effort.

You are on the right track

Adrian Chira 1 year 2 weeks 5 days 6 hours ago

Hi Jamon,

I think you are on the right track. Content is for sure the one that will differentiate you and if you do content that everybody has the differentiation is gone. I agree with Dan that you should write about what are you passionate about and in this way your articles will get noticed. from my experience I can tell you that it may take some time till you find your niche, but don't worry, you will find it.

Good luck and happy blogging

Adrian

Yep!

Steve Early 1 year 2 weeks 5 days 17 hours ago

Jamon:

You seem really passionate about what you do and the value of the services you provide. Be yourself and blog about the things that excite and interest you (without sounding like a commercial, of course) and you'll be fine. Stay away from themes that might make you sound like everyone else.

All the best,

Steve

Jamon- You are on the right

Rory Stanton 1 year 2 weeks 5 days 18 hours ago

Jamon-

You are on the right track. It's generally a better idea to focus blog articles on topics that are interesting and will appeal to your target customers, not about your own products or services.

Check out "How to Turn a Blog into a B2B Lead Generation Machine" on HubSpot's blog to get some business blogging strategies.